Journal: Journal for Baptist Theology & Ministry
Volume: JBTM 22:2 (Fall 2025)
Article: Editorial Introduction
Author: Thomas G. Doughty, Jr.

Editorial Introduction

Thomas G. Doughty Jr.

Tommy Doughty serves as Associate Dean of Leavell College and editor of the Journal for Baptist Theology and Ministry at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

Continuing the centennial celebration of volume 22 of the Journal for Baptist Theology & Ministry, this issue contains several highlights of twentieth century Baptist heritage. Specifically, the Cooperative Program provides a lens for continuing focus on doctrinal and missional cooperation. Recent annual meetings of the Southern Baptist Convention have centered on theological and practical concerns regarding local church leadership, financial transparency, and central representation amidst ethical grievances. With swirling winds of innovation, uncertainty, and economic sluggishness, the Convention’s entities have seen further development of targeted giving. All these variables demonstrate the need for fresh considerations of why and how Baptists have prioritized cooperation in the past.

In the Fall 2025 issue of JBTM, we give special attention to practical, theological, and biographical examples of Baptist unity. First, Chris Shaffer unpacks the beginnings of the cooperative strategy of funding Southern Baptist enterprises such as missions and theological education. As an endeavor of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, JBTM is grateful for the historic commitment of Southern Baptist churches and families to preparing servants for kingdom work. Second, we are pleased to reproduce an essay originally published in The Bulletin of the Baptist Bible Institute, written by the first president of BBI, now NOBTS. Byron DeMent’s article on the nature and implications of biblical inspiration is headed with an introduction by the ninth and current president of NOBTS, Jamie Dew. Dew highlights the context of DeMent’s commentary on the Bible as the Word of God when questions were raised about faculty commitment on the truth of Scripture.

More articles support the success and challenge of continued cooperation through historical Baptist examples and doctrines.

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Third, Landon Adams sketches a biographical background of William Ward, a key partner of William Carey in the Serampore mission. Before entering the mission field, Ward used his professional aptitude as a newspaper editor and his connections with Baptist colleagues in the fight for the abolition of slavery. Fourth, Shebuel Varghese furthers theological support for the practice of believer’s baptism through devotional examples. Specifically, the exhortations to remember and reason through one’s baptism can only be satisfactorily carried out by a Christian who assented to their baptism in the visible portrait of the gospel they had already emb...